5 Steps to Turn a Good Song Great

We previously wrote a first draft of a song in this video “How to Write a Great Song in Under an Hour”. In this article, we go through the steps we’ve taken in order to turn that song draft into a great song! It’s to be noted that this article is geared more towards serious songwriters who are keen on taking their craft to the next level.

This article is a summarised transcript of our video “Transform Your Songs from Good to Great (5 Simple Steps for Rewriting)”. Click here to watch the video for more details, explanations and examples.

Step #1 – Get your chorus tempo right

We all know that finding the tempo of our song is important. However, what many songwriters don’t realise is that you should start by looking for the tempo of your chorus, rather than the beginning of your song. 

This is because the chorus is the bit that you want to be performing the most comfortably at – everything else can follow along later. Even a change as insignificant as 7 BPM can mean the difference between your melody feeling rushed or just right.

In short, you should magnify in on your chorus and find the tempo at which it feels the most comfortable for you to sing.

Step #2 – Iterate on your hook melody

When writing your hook, it’s important to ensure that there are neon lights placed around it to make it stand out. However, you don’t want your hook to be there for the sake of it. Instead, you really want your melody to match the meaning of the words and the emotional flow of the song.

A key question to ask yourself at the end of your choruses is “Do you want it to feel stable or unstable?”. Another way to put it is “Do you want it to feel resolved or open-ended?”

Download our free Song Revision Checklist PDF here to help you keep track of your progress as you take your song from good to great:

Step #3 – Create melodic progression inside your song

We can break down music into 3 parts – lyrics, chords and melody. If we liken music to films, the chords would be the film soundtrack, supporting its meaning from the background. The lyrics and melody are where the action and narrative are really happening.

One easy way to pinpoint what is happening melodically is to focus on the beginnings and endings of melodic phrases. Again, ask yourself if you want them to be stable and resolved, or unstable and unresolved.

It’s fine to write melodies in an intuitive manner during the songwriting phase. However, during the revision phrase, you want to make sure that not all of your melodic phrases are resolving in a stable manner. Otherwise, your song will feel like it lacks an emotional journey.

Step #4 – Decide on a song form

When you decide on a song form at the start of your songwriting process, it allows you to build on that form to fit your narrative. Once you have your song form and story, you can build all the other sections by thinking primarily in terms of rhythm and melody.

An analogy we could use is thinking of lyrics as the vision of what your house will look like. On the other hand, melody and rhythm are the structural elements of your house. By building the structure of your house first (Melody & Rhythm), you can fill it with furniture later (Lyrics).

Step #5 – Write the rest of the lyrics focusing on the “Big Picture Story”

After getting the song form and melodic shape of the song, it’s time to fill in the lyrics. Don’t fret if there are entire sections of lyrics in your song that need to be rewritten or replaced. Instead, ask yourself what the development of the story is like. Also consider how you can approach the hook in an interesting way, so that it has a different meaning when you return to it.

One of the important things to note is that during the writing of your pre-chorus, there can be a lot of trial and error. You shouldn’t settle on the first thing that works. Instead, put effort into looking for words that both express the idea, and are singable.

Another great tip is to target the end line rhyme of the pre-chorus. The pre-chorus is around so that we can set up the hook. By focusing on the end line rhyme, we’re sonically setting up our listener for the hook. This is also known as sonic targeting.

Conclusion: 5 Steps to Turn a Good Song Great

It takes a lot of effort to turn a good song into a great song. From re-evaluating your song’s melodic progression to deciding on a song form, you need to examine every facet of your song through a magnifying glass. By doing this, your song will be polished to a brilliant shine, and be remembered by your listener’s minds.

If you would like more details, explanations and examples, then be sure to check out the video now.

And you can view the full, unabridged version of our songwriting process at our Patreon channel here.

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Turn your inspiration into beautiful songs with step-by-step guidance through two professional songwriting methods. By the end of this course, not only will your tool belt be stocked; you’ll have a plan and a method for finishing your songs – all of them: